What Voters Really Want Is a Public Option

Nate Silver: “Last week, I noted that Bernie Sanders is winning over Democratic primary voters on health care. Whether you love, hate or are indifferent toward his ‘Medicare for All’ plan, polls show Sanders leading when Democratic voters are asked which candidate they think is best able handle to health care.”

“The thing is, though — according to new polling from Marist College this week — Sanders’s plan isn’t actually the most popular idea in the field. Instead, that distinction belongs to what Marist calls ‘Medicare for all that want it,’ or what’s sometimes called a public option — something very similar to Joe Biden’s recently unveiled health care plan, which claims to give almost everyone ‘the choice to purchase a public health insurance option like Medicare.'”

“In the Marist poll, 90% of Democrats thought a plan that provided for a public option was a good idea, as compared to 64% who supported a Sanders-style Medicare for All plan that would replace private health insurance. The popularity of the public option also carries over to independent voters: 70% support it, as compared to 39% for Medicare for All.”